A Compliment for the Brain

Good evening. My question of the day: What is “smart”? We have so many uses and definitions for the word, especially at Uni, where everyone is considered “smart” in some way or another. Let me rephrase that. We consider ourselves “smart” compared to non-Uni students or other people, but we have our own “smart” that is reserved for only a few people with a specific kind of gets-good-grades-without-trying sort of “smart.” This leads to confusion about the real definition of the word. I have been called “smart” before. I have also called other people “smart” before. But what does it mean? I’m not totally sure.

Let’s start by looking it up in a dictionary or two. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has many definitions of the word, as it does for just about any word. Smart can be used for acute, precise, brisk, fast, or healthy depending on the context. It has a few relevant definitions as well. One says: “clever, intelligent, knowledgeable; capable, adept; quick at learning, responding intelligently to a situation, etc.” Another says: “clever in talk or argument; capable of making witty remarks, quick-witted.” This was not totally helpful. Intelligence, knowledge, capability, quickness at learning, and wit are not all the same thing. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary has a few relevant definitions as well. “Mentally alert; bright… knowledgeable… shrewd… witty, clever.” Yeah, Merriam-Webster is all over the place as well. What I’m getting so far is that “smart” can be used in totally different ways relating to mental capabilities of some sort depending on the situation. To generalize, it’s a compliment for the brain in some way or another.

So if it can have all sorts of different meanings, then how is it most commonly used? At Uni, we have a tendency to label someone as “smart” if they are good at getting good grades and good at taking standardized tests. “Smart” is an enviable trait in others, but it also somewhat puts a label and expectation onto people. This is also a use that squeezes the word “smart” into a tight box. There are many people that I would consider to be very intelligent and knowledgeable who are not the traditional Uni ‘smart” that everyone desperately strives for at this school. It’s frustrating that we take a such a narrow view of the definition of the word, but it is understandable that this happened. We all had to take a standardized test to come here and we have to take a bunch more to move on to college. We also have no honors or AP classes, so we compare ourselves based only on raw grades. This benefits some people over others and we get a misrepresentation of what it means to be “smart” and fit in at Uni.

I also asked some friends about what “smart” means and they made a distinction which  I had forgotten about until then. They brought up the difference between “book smart” and “street smart.” I had only been thinking about “book smart” in a (to be perfectly honest) cynical view in the context of Uni and had totally forgotten about “street smart,” which is more of a practical, every-day intelligence. It is less about wit than what to do in a tough or difficult situation outside of school. This “smart” is a very different type, but that makes it no more or less “smart” than “book smart,” which is the school “smart” that I discussed earlier. But they are all “smart,” a compliment for the brain regarding enviable mental capabilities.

And here is a Google Ngram for the word “smart,” because I thought it was interesting: